A report by Jordan Baker, Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Australia has a maths problem in its schools. The performance of the country’s students has steadily declined since global maths literacy tests began almost 20 years ago. By 2018, Australian 15-year-olds were a year behind where the same age group was in 2003, and three years behind those in the top-performing country, Singapore, when tested on how they apply the maths skills they’ve learnt. Amid the hand-wringing that followed the latest results (in late 2019), education ministers pointed to the revision of the national maths curriculum as their solution.
But curriculum is just one piece of the puzzle. Australia has a chronic shortage of maths teachers; one in four year eight students is taught by someone who was not trained in the subject, compared with one in 10 internationally, and the least experienced teachers tend to end up in the schools where expertise is most needed.”
Jordan also refers to the joint statement issued by maths organisations including AAMT and AMSI, calling for problem-solving to be central to how maths is taught.
Read more on SMH here.
